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| Chapter XII. Christ crucified is an offence and foolishness to those who declare that He was a mere man.
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Chapter XII.
Christ crucified is an offence and foolishness to those
who declare that He was a mere man.
The shock then to your
hearing and ears is that God was born, and God suffered. And where is
that saying of yours, O Apostle Paul: “But we preach Christ
crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the Gentiles
foolishness: but to them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.”2561
What is the Wisdom and Power of God? Certainly it is God. But he
preaches Christ who was crucified, as the Power and Wisdom of God. If
then Christ is without any doubt the Wisdom of God, He is therefore
without any doubt God. “We,” then, he says, “preach
Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a stumbling block, but to the
Gentiles foolishness.” And so the Lord’s cross, which was
foolishness to the Gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews is both
together to you. Nor indeed is there any greater foolishness than not
to believe, or any greater stumbling block than to refuse to listen.
Their ears were wounded then by the preaching and the passion of God,
just as yours are wounded now. They thought as you think that this
shocked their ears. And hence it was that when the Apostle was
preaching Christ as God, at the name of our God and Lord Jesus Christ,
they stopped the ears in their head, as you stop the ears of your
understanding. The sin of both of you in this matter might seem to be
equal, were it not that your fault is the greater, because they denied
Him, in whom the passion still showed the manhood,2562
while you deny Him, whom the resurrection
has already proved to be God. And so they were persecuting Him on the
earth, whom you are persecuting even in heaven. And not only so, but
this is more cruel and wicked, because they denied Him in
ignorance, you deny Him after having received the faith:
they not knowing the Lord, you when you have confessed
Him as God: they under cover of zeal for the law, you
under the cloke of your Bishopric: they denied Him to whom they
thought that they were strangers, you deny Him whose priest you
are. O unworthy act, and one never heard of before! You persecute and
attack the very One, whose office you are still
holding.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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